Open and Trusting Progress Report 2024

Our third Open and Trusting report shows our commitment to improving the way we make grants

Open and Trusting is a framework developed by Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR), which urges funders to be more flexible with their grant making. Since 2021, we have set out actions according to the eight Open and Trusting grant making principles. We measure and track our own progress, and continually review and update our actions in real time. This ensures the steps we make are meaningful for applicants and grant holders.

In 2023/24, we took steps to make our application process more accessible

This is our third report offering an update on our grant making. It builds on our current commitments to our applicants and grant holders, and responds to the feedback we received through our most recent applicant and grant holder survey, in 2023. We responded to the feedback from this survey by:

• Working hard to ensure closing dates align more to applicant needs
• Providing more advice and guidance before filling in lengthy application forms
• Sharing good funding practices with our partners

Ways you can engage with our grant making:

• We publish all our grant making data on 360 giving
• We maintain an Open and Trusting page with all our reports and updates as part of our Ways of Working
• We publish regular news, stories and publications that reference our Open and Trusting work